Cooling coated wires, strips and the like

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for cooling a coating on a wire comprising three separate coaxial passages through which the wire is adapted to pass after coating, the first and second passages passing through the walls of a pressurized gas manifold, the third passage having a tangentially directed liquid inlet bore therein and being flared at its lower end to define a liquid outlet passage between its lower end and the upper end of said second passage, means supplying liquid to said bore at such a rate as to cause a steady helical flow of liquid which fills said third passage but flows primarily from said outlet passage, and means supplying gas to said manifold at a pressure sufficient to cause substantially all of said quenching liquid to flow through said outlet passage.

United States Patent 1 Wondergem 5] Apr. 17, 1973 [541 COOLING COATED WIRES, STRIPS 2,010,941 8/1935 Bradley ,.1 18/69 AND THE LIKE 2,079,867 5 1937 Meyers 1. ..266/3 R 2,287,825 6/1942 P tl 't ..ll8/69 lnventorr Herman Wllham J Wondergem, 2,536,186 1/1951 ..266/3 R Birmingham Gardens, New South 2,880,739 4/1959 Popp ..266/3R Wales, Australia [73] Assignee: Australian Wire Industries Proprietary Limited, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia [22] Filed: June 26, 1970 [21] App]. No.: 50,086

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data June 26, 1969 Australia ..57082/69 [52] Cl ..266/3 R, 117/] 19.4, 118/69 [51 Int. Cl. ..C21d 9/52 [58] Field of Search ..1 17/1 19.4; 1 18/69; 266/3 R [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 378,746 2/l888 Watson ..266/3 R Primary Examiner-Gerald A. Dost Attorney-Young & Thompson [57] ABSTRACT An apparatus for cooling a coating on a wire comprising three separate coaxial passages through which the wire is adapted to pass after coating, the first and second passages passing through the walls of a pressurized gas manifold, the third passage having a tangentially directed liquid inlet bore therein and being flared at its lower end to define a liquid outlet passage I between its lower end and the upper end of said second passage, means supplying liquid to said bore at such a rate as to cause a steady helical flow of liquid which fills said third passage but flows primarily from said outlet passage, and means supplying gas to said manifold at a pressure sufficient to cause substantially all of said quenching liquid to flow through said outlet passage.

6 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures PATENI APR 1 71975 SHEET 2 BF 2 Away 70/? Hie/mm My. //iMc/0"/A/ Wo/ms/eaf/v COOLING COATED WIRES, STRIPS AND THE LIKE -This invention relates to a method of and apparatus for cooling a wire, strip or other continuous length of material which has been subjected to a hot-dip or other coating process where cooling is required before the wire, strip or the like can be handled, for example, the galvanizing of wire.

In the galvanizing of wires or strips, it is necessary for the coating to be quenched and it is desirable that this quenching be effected as soon as possible after the coating process is completed. It is also necessary that there should be no mechanical abrasion of the coating before it has been quenched to a hardness sufficient to prevent its deformation or "pick up by the guides necessary for directional control through the coating and quenching apparatus. Another requirement of a quench is that it be designed so that a minimal amount of quench water is allowed to pass into the coating apparatus.

It is an object of the invention to provide a quenching apparatus which will operate to sufficiently quench a coating without abrasion thereto whilst to a great extent preventing escape of water from the apparatus to the coating apparatus.

In one form the invention provides an apparatus for cooling'a coating ona wire, strip or other continuous length of material (hereinafter termed wire"), comprising a passage through which the wire is adapted to be passed after it has been coated, said passage being constructed to provide a space surrounding said wire, a laterally directed quenching liquid inlet bore opening into said passage and adapted to substantially fill said space with quenching liquid, said passage being constructed to divert the quenching liquid away from said wire at the wire entry end of said passage.

in another aspect theinvention provides a method of cooling a coating on a wire, strip or other continuous length of material (hereinafter termed wire) comprising passing said wire through a passage, directing a 1 quenching liquid into said passage to substantially fill the space between the wire and passage and diverting the quenching liquid away from said wire at the wire entry end of said passage. 7

The diversion of the quenching liquid is preferably achieved partly by directing pressurized air or other suitable gas(es) towards the wire entry end of the An embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an end elevation of a water quench embodyin g the invention showing its position in a wire galvanizns P t;

F 2 is a sectional end elevation of the water quench, and FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional end elevation taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

Whilst the described embodiment relates to the cooling of a recently applied zinc coating on a galvanized wire, it should be understood that the invention is equally applicable to the cooling or other treatment of strips and other continuous sections, flat or otherwise, and to coatings other than zinc, for example, aluminum or chromium.

The water quench apparatus Q embodying the invention comprises a plurality of quenching units (see FIG. 3.) each including three coaxial tubes 1, 2 and 3 through which the wire, coated with zinc by an ap'- paratus A located adjacent the water quench as shown in FIG. 1, is passed for the quenching operation, the direction of wire travel being upwardly through the tubes 1, 2 and 3 respectively. The apparatus A is preferably of the type described in copending application Ser. No. 805,145 filed Mar. 7, 1969. The tube 3 is formed with a primary water inlet bore 4 and a secondary water inlet bore 4a smaller than bore 4, both of which open tangentially into the tube3 (see FIG. 3) so that quenching water delivered through pipes P from a supply manifold M forms a stable helical flow of water between the tube 3 and the wire travelling through the' tube. The water inlet bores 4, 4a are located suitably between the ends of the tube 3 so that during operation substantially the whole of the annular space between the wire and tube 3 is substantially filled with water.

The tube 3 is flared at its lower end 3a and the upper end of tube 2 is located adjacent the flared portion to define an annular passage 5 through which the bulk of the water in tube 3 passes into a water overflow reservoir 6. The motion of the water in tube 3, the flared end 3a of the tube, bore sizes and water flow rate are selected to ensure that water supplied through bores 4 and 4a is substantially balanced with outflow through passage 5.

Should the rate of flow into bores 4 and4a become greater than outflow through annular passage 5 the overflow from the upper end of tube 3 will be collected by trough T for return to the reservoir 6. Now whilst most of the cooling water passes through the passage 5 due to the flared end 3a and the helical flow of water, a small amount tends to enter the tube 2. Since it is important to prevent, at least to a substantial extent, water entering the coating apparatus A, tubes 2 and 1 open into a pressurized air manifold 8 having an air inlet 9 and at least one small drain port 10 for each unit which opens into the reservoir 6. The air in manifold 8 flows principally through tubes 1 and 2, a small amount being lost through port 10. The flow of air through tube 2 assists in the deflection of water through passage 5 and the air flow through tube 1 assists in preventing escape of water from tube 1 into the coating apparatus A.

To still further assist in this regard, the lower end of tube 2 is outwardly flared as shown so that any water passing through this tube against the air flow will tend to be diverted from entering the tube 1 and will pass through drain hole 10 to the reservoir 6. 7

As in the case of the cooling water, the air inlet 9, tubes 1 and 2 and the rate of air flow are selected to provide satisfactory operation in use.

In view of the closeness of the coating apparatus A to the tube 1, an apertured baffle plate B is positioned between the tube 1 and the coating baths to deflect most of the air which escapes from tube 1 and to a great extent prevent extinguishing the flame at coating ap- It will be evident from the above that the quenching apparatus according to the embodiment may be safely used adjacent to the coating apparatus so as to quench the coated wire immediately after the coating process with a minimum of water escaping from the quench to the coating baths.

It will be appreciated that invention is not limited to the apparatus described above since many modifications within the scope of the invention may be effected by those skilled in the art. For example, it may be possible to exclude the air manifold arrangement and avoid the passage of water to the coating apparatus by providing a plurality of flared tubes like tube 2 in series. Alternatively, air manifold 8 may be replaced by means producing an annular jet of air directed upwardly into the tube 2. A water collection trough may be provided to collect water which passes through the tube 2 or a construction similar to manifold 8 provided.

For strips, it may be necessary to replace tube 3 by a rectangular section tube. For other sections suitably shaped tubes may be required.

The described embodiment has been designed for a high speed galvanizing plant. For low speed plants, only one water inlet bore need be provided in tube 3 but it preferably has a nozzle which projects into the tube 3 so as to be adjacent the wire. Similarly for such a unit it is preferred that the upper end of tube 2 be located within the flared end of tube 3.

The apparatus of the invention may be adapted for purposes other than cooling so the terms cooling and quenching should be construed to include other operations capable of being performed by the apparatus, for example heating or chemical treatments of wires", coated or otherwise.

lclaim:

1. Apparatus for cooling a continuous length of material, comprising an upright conduit through which the material passes with clearance, means for moving the material upwardly through the conduit, the conduit having a laterally directed quenching liquid inlet bore opening into the interior of the conduit, means to introduce quenching liquid through the bore into the conduit, and means for directing a flow of gas upward against the lower end of the conduit to divert the liquid away from the material at the lower end of the conduit.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, the interior of the conduit having a circular cross section and said material being filamentary, said bore being directed substantially tangentially of said circular cross section to cause quenching liquid delivered therefrom to assume a helical flow path between the filamentary material and the inner side walls of the conduit.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, said lower end of said conduit being flared to divert the quenching liquid away from said material.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, and a further conduit coaxial with the first-mentioned conduit and disposed adjacent the lower end of the first-mentioned conduit, said gas-directing means directing said gas upwardly through said further conduit.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4, and a still further conduit coaxial with said first-mentioned and further conduits and disposed below said further conduit, said gas-directing means introducing said gas between said further conduit and said still further conduit.

6. Apparatus as claimed m claim 1, there being a plurality of said conduits arranged parallel in a bank to receive a plurality of lengths of material, all of said conduits having in common the same said means for supplying liquid. 

1. Apparatus for cooling a continuous length of material, comprising an upright conduit through which the material passes with clearance, means for moving the material upwardly through the conduit, the conduit having a laterally directed quenching liquid inlet bore opening into the interior of the conduit, means to introduce quenching liquid through the bore into the conduit, and means for directing a flow of gas upward against the lower end of the conduit to divert the liquid away from the material at the lower end of the conduit.
 2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, the interior of the conduit having a circular cross section and said material being filamentary, said bore being directed substantially tangentially of said circular cross section to cause quenching liquid delivered therefrom to assume a helical flow path between the filamentary material and the inner side walls of the conduit.
 3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, said lower end of said conduit being flared to divert the quenching liquid away from said material.
 4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, and a further conduit coaxial with the first-mentioned conduit and disposed adjacent the lower end of the first-mentioned conduit, said gas-directing means directing said gas upwardly through said further conduit.
 5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4, and a still further conduit coaxial with said first-mentioned and further conduits and disposed below said further conduit, said gas-directing means introducing said gas between said further conduit and said still further conduit.
 6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, there being a plurality of said conduits arranged parallel in a bank to receive a plurality of lengths of material, all of said conduits having in common the same said means for supplying liquid. 